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BackgroundMental health disorders in patients with multi-drug or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) receive consistent attention. Anxiety and depression can manifest and may impact disease progression in patients with MDR/RR-TB. Given the heightened stressors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, this scenario is even more concerning.ObjectiveTo evaluate the prevalence of and risk factors associated with anxiety and depression among patients with MDR/RR-TB in southern China.MethodsA facility-based cross-sectional study was undertaken at Guangzhou Chest Hospital in southern China, encompassing a cohort of 219 patients undergoing outpatient and inpatient treatment for MDR/RR-TB. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed using the 7-Item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). The ramifications of anxiety and depression were examined using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, with odds ratios (ORs) and age- and sex-adjusted ORs (AORs) employed to quantify their influence. All data underwent statistical analysis using SPSS 25.0, with statistical significance established at P < 0.05.ResultsTwo hundred and nineteen individuals with MDR/RR-TB were included in the study. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was 57.53% (n = 126) and 65.75% (n = 144), respectively, with 33.3% (n = 73) of the participants experiencing both conditions simultaneously. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that an age of 20–40 years [anxiety AOR = 3.021, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.240–7.360; depression AOR = 3.538, 95% CI: 1.219–10.268], disease stigma (anxiety AOR = 10.613, 95% CI: 2.966–37.975; depression AOR = 4.514, 95% CI: 2.051–10.108) and poor physical health (anxiety AOR = 7.636, 95% CI: 2.938–19.844; depression AOR = 6.190, 95% CI: 2.468–15.529) were significant risk factors for moderate levels of anxiety and depression.ConclusionsWe found that individuals with MDR/RR-TB had an elevated risk of anxiety and depression. To decrease the likelihood of unfavorable treatment outcomes, it is imperative to carefully monitor the psychological wellbeing of patients with MDR/RR-TB and promptly address any detrimental psychiatric conditions.

Background and purposeIncreasing evidence has indicated that the high risk of cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients cannot be sufficiently explained by classic risk factors.Experimental approachBased on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method, we identified significantly altered renal tissue metabolites during progressive CKD in a 5/6 nephrectomized rat model and in CKD patients.Key resultsSix aryl-containing metabolites (ACMs) were significantly increased from Week 1 to Week 20. They were associated with the activation of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and its target genes including CYP1A1, CYP1A2 and CYP1B1, which were further validated by molecular docking. Our study further demonstrated that AhR signalling could be activated by ACM in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy, diabetic nephropathy and IgA nephropathy. Most importantly, 1-aminopyrene (AP) showed strong positive and negative correlation with serum creatinine and creatinine clearance, respectively. AP significantly up-regulated the mRNA expressions of AhR and its three target genes in both mice and NRK-52E cells, while this effect was partially weakened in AhR small hairpin RNA-treated mice and NRK-52E cells. Furthermore, dietary flavonoid supplementation ameliorated CKD and renal fibrosis through partially inhibiting the AhR activity via lowering the ACM levels. The antagonistic effect of flavonoids on AhR was deeply influenced by the number and location of hydroxyl and glycosyl groups.Conclusion and implicationsWe uncovered that endogenous AP is a novel mediator of CKD progression via AhR activation; thus, AhR might serve as a promising target for CKD treatment.

BackgroundIncreasing evidence suggests a link between the gut microbiome and various diseases including hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, studies examining the efficacy of controlling blood pressure and inhibiting the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in preventing CKD progression are limited.MethodsIn the present study, we used 5/6 nephrectomised (NX) and unilateral ureteral obstructed (UUO) rat models and cultured renal tubular epithelial cells and fibroblasts to test whether alisol B 23-acetate (ABA) can attenuate renal fibrogenesis by regulating blood pressure and inhibiting RAS.ResultsABA treatment re-established dysbiosis of the gut microbiome, lowered blood pressure, reduced serum creatinine and proteinuria, suppressed expression of RAS constituents and inhibited the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in NX rats. Similarly, ABA treatment inhibited expression of collagen I, fibronectin, vimentin, α-smooth muscle actin and fibroblast-specific protein 1 at both mRNA and protein levels in UUO rats. ABA was also effective in suppressing activation of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/Smad3 and preserving Smad7 expression in both NX and UUO rats. In vitro experiments demonstrated that ABA treatment inhibited the Wnt/β-catenin and mitochondrial-associated caspase pathways.ConclusionThese data suggest that ABA attenuated renal fibrosis through a mechanism associated with re-establishing dysbiosis of the gut microbiome and regulating blood pressure, and Smad7-mediated inhibition of Smad3 phosphorylation. Thus, we demonstrate ABA as a promising candidate for treatment of CKD by improving the gut microbiome and regulating blood pressure.

Dysbiosis represents changes in composition and structure of the gut microbiome community (microbiome), which may dictate the physiological phenotype (health or disease). Recent technological advances and efforts in metagenomic and metabolomic analyses have led to a dramatical growth in our understanding of microbiome, but still, the mechanisms underlying gut microbiome-host interactions in healthy or diseased state remain elusive and their elucidation is in infancy. Disruption of the normal gut microbiota may lead to intestinal dysbiosis, intestinal barrier dysfunction, and bacterial translocation. Excessive uremic toxins are produced as a result of gut microbiota alteration, including indoxyl sulphate, p-cresyl sulphate, and trimethylamine-N-oxide, all implicated in the variant processes of kidney diseases development. This review focuses on the pathogenic association between gut microbiota and kidney diseases (the gut-kidney axis), covering CKD, IgA nephropathy, nephrolithiasis, hypertension, acute kidney injury, hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in clinic. Targeted interventions including probiotic, prebiotic and symbiotic measures are discussed for their potential of re-establishing symbiosis, and more effective strategies for the treatment of kidney diseases patients are suggested. The novel insights into the dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in kidney diseases are helpful to develop novel therapeutic strategies for preventing or attenuating kidney diseases and complications.

Fibrosis is a final pathological feature of many chronic diseases, but few interventions are available that specifically target the pathogenesis of fibrosis. The highlights of common cellular and molecular mechanisms of fibrosis facilitate the discovery of effective antifibrotic drugs. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a central physiological role in the control of blood pressure and fluid homeostasis. Emerging evidence has revealed that activation of RAS was consistently found in fibrotic tissue. At the same time, as more components of the RAS are described, other pot Potential therapeutic targets emerge, so it seems sensible to revisit the contribution of RAS in anti-fibrotic therapy. So far, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockers (ARB) are the main commercial available drugs for intervening RAS. However, RAS inhibitors had lots of limitations in long-term application owing to occurring AngII and aldosterone escape. Over the past decades, natural products have aroused growing attention as potential RAS inhibitors due to their high efficacy and low risk of side effects. In this review, we revisit the contribution of RAS and its new members to anti-fibrotic therapy. Ultimately, we summarize and evaluate the use of natural products including isolated compounds, crude extracts and traditional Chinese herbal formulas to regulate RAS. These natural products can retard tissue fibrosis by targeting different RAS components, which provide us new therapeutic strategies to discover anti-fibrotic drugs.

Objective: To study the effects of microbial nitrification inhibitors on the formation and changes of flavors in air-dried sausages. Methods: Four groups of air-dried sausages were designed: MNI group: 0.05% of microbial nitrosation inhibitors （MNI） were added; MNIP group: 0.05% MNI and an inoculation of PRO-MIX5 commercial starter （Staphylococcus xylose, Lactobacillus sake, and L. plantarum） were added; FBFAP group: fermented beef flavorings and compound antioxidants were added, and the sausages were inoculated with the PRO-MIX5 commercial starter; and CK group: blank control （CK）. The flavor of air-dried sausages was determined by an amino acid analyzer, Heracles iii ultra-fast gas phase electronic nose, electronic tongue and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry （GC-MS）. Results: Glutamate, alanine, taurine and carnosine are the primary free amino acids in the four groups of air-dried sausages. The addition of MNIP promoted the production of fresh amino acids and increased the total amount of free amino acids. Glutamate and alanine, two umami and sweet amino acids, contributed the most to the taste of air-dried sausages, and the four groups of air-dried sausages were primarily umami and sweet. There were differences in flavor and taste among the four groups. The electronic nose and electronic tongue principal component analysis （PCA） could distinguish between them. The flavors and taste of the MNI and MNIP groups were similar, and the taste of FBFAP group and CK were similar. The addition of MNI and MNIP improved the umami of air-dried sausage and reduced its saltiness and bitterness. Ethyl hexanoate and ethyl isovalerate were the characteristic flavors of the MNIP group. Linalool was the characteristic flavor of the MNI group, while decanal and ethyl isovalerate were the characteristic flavors of the FBFAP group. Conclusion: The addition of MNI alone or the synergistic effect of MNI and PRO-MIX5 promotes the formation of flavor in the air-dried sausages, indicating that MNI shows great promise at promoting the formation of flavor in air-dried sausages.

The analysis and utilization of potential information in data stream is an important part of data stream mining.Concept drift is a huge challenge for data stream mining that the distribution of data will change with time.Detecting changes in data distribution is a direct and effective method to detect concept drift.Currently,some concept drift detection methods use the tree structure or grid to establish a histogram to describe the data distribution.However,the tree structure is easy to produce inspection blind spots and leads to poor interpretability.While using the grid method on multi-dimensional data,the memory consumption is too much.To solve the above problems,a concept drift detection method for multi-dimensional data streams called partition based on uniform density clusters(PUDC) is proposed.The algorithm is based on the k-Means algorithm to partition the data with uniform density and uses the chi-square test for statistics and calculation of each partition to detect the concept drift.To ve-rify the validity of the method,four artificial datasets and three real datasets were selected for experiments.The type I and type II error rates of different dimensions of data were compared and analyzed.Experimental results show that PUDC algorithm is superior to several new algorithms in concept drift detection of multi-dimensional data streams.

Kidney diseases are serious public problems with high morbidity and mortality in the general population and heavily retard renal function with aging regardless of the cause. Although myriad strategies have been assigned to prevent or harness disease progression, unfortunately, thus far, there is a paucity of effective therapies partly due to an insufficient knowledge of underlying pathological mechanisms, indicating deeper studies are urgently needed. Additionally, natural products are increasingly recognized as an alternative source for disease intervention owing to the potent safety and efficacy, which might be exploited for novel drug discovery. In this review, we primarily expatiate the new advances on mediators that might be amenable to targeting aging kidney and kidney diseases, including nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NOX), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), renin-angiotensin system (RAS), nuclear factor-erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2), peroxisome proliferator-activated γ receptor (PPARγ), advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) as well as microRNAs and vitagenes. Of note, we conclude by highlighting some natural products which have the potential to facilitate the development of novel treatment for patients with myriad renal diseases.

Interface bonding between different asphalt pavement layers is crucial in maintaining the integrity of the pavement structure. To improve the interface bonding, bitumen emulsion is commonly used as the tack coat material. However, the bonding performance of conventional bitumen emulsion is limited. This study investigated the possibility of using waterborne epoxy resin modified bitumen emulsion as a novel tack coat material. The resistance to moisture damage of waterborne epoxy resin modified bitumen emulsion was evaluated using the boiling water test, followed by the characterization of the interface adhesion between waterborne epoxy resin modified bitumen emulsion and aggregate using the binder bond strength test. To further determine the interface bonding between different asphalt layers bonded by waterborne epoxy resin modified bitumen emulsion, a two-layer asphalt mixture structure was fabricated, and the shear strength was measured. The results indicated that the incorporation of waterborne epoxy resin can increase the interface bonding between the two asphalt mixture layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource description framework (RDF) is a metadata model and information description specification recommended by W3C,which is widely used in various fields.To track changes in RDF data over time,temporal information is introduced into the RDF framework.With the rapid growth of temporal RDF data,effective management of temporal RDF data is necessary.A reasonable index mechanism can achieve efficient storage and query of data.In this paper,we first present a temporal RDF data mo-del.We propose a specific one-dimensional coding scheme,which represent temporal data simply and extend the existing RDF data model with lower overhead.Furthermore,we present its two levels of indexes based on neighborhood structure.The first one uses dynamic counting filter to index the neighborhood information of the node,and the second builds the B+ tree to index the temporal RDF data related to each node.Moreover,large-scale temporal RDF data can be updated.Experimental results show that the proposed method is around 35% better than the comparison method in most cases,and it is scalable and effective.

Abstract Background Studies related to the SARS-CoV-2 spikes in the past few months, while there are limited studies on the entire outbreak-suppressed cycle of COVID-19. We estimate the cause-specific excess mortality during the complete circle of COVID-19 outbreak in Guangzhou, China, stratified by sociodemographic status. Methods Guangzhou Center for Disease Control Prevention provided the individual data of deaths in Guangzhou from 1 January 2018 through 30 June 2020. We applied Poisson regression models to daily cause-specific mortality between 1 January 2018 and 20 January 2020, accounting for effects of population size, calendar time, holiday, ambient temperature and PM2.5. Expected mortality was estimated for the period from 21 January through 30 June 2020 assuming that the effects of factors aforementioned remained the same as described in the models. Excess mortality was defined as the difference between the observed mortality and the expected mortality. Subgroup analyses were performed by place of death, age group, sex, marital status and occupation class. Results From 21 January (the date on which the first COVID-19 case occurred in Guangzhou) through 30 June 2020, there were three stages of COVID-19: first wave, second wave, and recovery stage, starting on 21 January, 11 March, and 17 May 2020, respectively. Mortality deficits were seen from late February through early April and in most of the time in the recovery stage. Excesses in hypertension deaths occurred immediately after the starting weeks of the two waves. Overall, we estimated a deficit of 1051 (95% eCI: 580, 1558) in all-cause deaths. Particularly, comparing with the expected mortality in the absence of COVID-19 outbreak, the observed deaths from pneumonia and influenza substantially decreased by 49.2%, while deaths due to hypertension and myocardial infarction increased by 14.5 and 8.6%, respectively. In-hospital all-cause deaths dropped by 10.2%. There were discrepancies by age, marital status and occupation class in the excess mortality during the COVID-19 outbreak. Conclusions The excess deaths during the COVID-19 outbreak varied by cause of death and changed temporally. Overall, there was a deficit in deaths during the study period. Our findings can inform preparedness measures in different stages of the outbreak.